John-Manuel Andriote: Cliff Street decisions being made in secret

Two weeks ago, we learned they’ve been meeting privately for about a year with the Lord family, owners of the old Sears building downtown, to discuss buying and turning the property into a new $33.4 million police station.

Two weeks ago, we learned they’ve been meeting privately for about a year with the Lord family, owners of the old Sears building downtown, to discuss buying and turning the property into a new $33.4 million police station.

They’re now making a pitched effort to convince voters to approve this latest scheme to revive downtown.

Meanwhile, last week, Cliff Street residents living near St. Joseph school were surprised to learn the St. Vincent de Paul Place soup kitchen will be moving into the former school cafeteria while its Railroad Avenue location — owned by (surprise!) the Lord family — is renovated.

Appeal by Diocese

City Council members claim there’s nothing they could do to prevent it after the Catholic Diocese successfully appealed to the state, asking it to overrule the city building inspector’s judgment that the school is not suitable because it isn’t handicapped accessible.

which doubles as the Zoning Commission, could have used its zoning authority to prevent the move.

“The accessory use was a cafeteria to feed (the school’s) occupants,” said Kobylarz. “(The decision) was determined, without any public hearing, bypassing every single authority in the city and signing off on a piece of paper saying it’s the same.”

He was equally upset with the manner in which it happened. “What city official came to us as all this was going on? We had to stumble across it by accident. It was all behind our backs. It may not be illegal, but it sure is troubling.”

Citizens matter

Kobylarz isn’t the only one upset. David Mitchell, another longtime resident of the area, wrote in an email to the city manager, mayor and council that he actually believed that citizens mattered.

“Clearly, that is not true when the constituency, at least in this case, is the Norwich Diocese and a local property owner and the citizenry is not even considered worthy to participate in the discussion,” he said.

Citing police figures from Jan. 1 through June 25, Mitchell stated there were 158 unique calls to the soup kitchen — 89 for assaults, fighting, breach of peace, alcohol, drug-related or medical emergencies. Now those calls will be moved to Oak Street, Mitchell said.

The police department will step up its patrols of the area.

Of course, that very neatly bolsters the argument for a downtown police station.

John-Manuel Andriote, of Norwich, can be reached at johnmandriote@gmail.com.